How to Add and Remove a Widget on Your Android Device

When you first got your Android device, one of the things you probably couldn’t stop looking at was the time and weather widget that was able to give you that information in real time. Getting weather info was as easy as unlocking your phone and refreshing the widget, but if you’re not happy with your current widget, there are tons of widget apps you can download from Google Play right now. But before you go widget shopping there are some things you should know about Android Widgets.

What is a Widget on Android?

An Android widget is a relatively straightforward to use software application or component made for one or more software platforms according to Wikipedia. Widgets are usually a shortcut to a bigger application. For example, in the image below you’re going to see the time and weather widget on my phone, but if I were to tap on the widget, the actual application opens and looks like this.

How to Add a Widget to Your Home Screen

Adding a widget to your Android’s home screen is easy, the first thing you need to do is to go to your home screen where you want the widget to go. Make sure that there is enough space for the widget, so if you think there might not be, you can move some app icons around by long-pressing on them and moving them to where you want them to stay. Once you have space, long-press on the empty space are until you see the menus.

After tapping on the Widgets icon, you should see all the widgets you have on your device.

As you can see in the image above, I selected the widget I want to add to my home screen. Now, what you need to do from here is tap on the folder of where your widget is (if there is more than one) and then your widget should appear. If there is only one, simply long-press on it and drag it to where you want it to stay.

Some of the steps may vary since it will depend on what Android device you have or what Android version you are running. On other devices, you might need to open the app drawer and choose the Widgets tab.

How to Remove a Widget

If you got bored of the widget you added and you’re ready to move on, you can remove it by long-pressing on it. You should see a trash can icon appear at the top and now drag the widget to the trash icon and you’re done!

Make sure to explore your widgets since you can add widgets for things you probably didn’t know you could. For example, I have Feedly on my phone and going to the widgets menu I was able to add a widget of Feedly and see the latest tech news without having to open my browser.

Conclusion

Adding a widget to your home screen isn’t as hard as it seems and removing it is even easier. Don’t forget to check your widgets from time to time to see if you have an app you can add a widget for. Do you have a widget on your Android’s home screen? Let me know in the comments.